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Sallia
Phonology Sallia uses an alphabet of 16 letters: A a K k D d E ɛ F f H h I ɪ L l M m N n O o P p R r S s T t U ʊ. Overall, the letters sound the way you would expect them to be, regardless of their placement. When it is not stressed, the letter "i" tends to form diphthongs aɪ, eɪ, oɪ and uɪ, as well as ɪa, ɪe, ɪo and ɪu when it comes in contact with another vowel. Other vowels are pronounced separately from each other. Phonotactics The Sallia syllables have one of the following structures: V, VC, CV, CVC and, more rarely, VCC and CVCC. Out of all consonants, only L, M, N, R, S and T can be syllable-final. Stress The stress usually falls on the last syllable of the root. For example suofó river deahúodéni (deahu + o + de + ni) on the top of the tower tía (ti +'' a'') arrives méniot ''(''men + i'' + ''ot) about people e tíasi (ti + a'' + ''si) if he comes Basic Grammar Sallia is an agglutinating language. It has a lot of cases and compound words. Verbs Sallia verbs and adjectives always have the final -a (sometimes substituted by -l, see below): Nunamen dun'a'' - The boy plays. Punase deatti'a'' - The tree grows. Nunaei dunsdan'a''' - The children laugh. The verbs do not change according to tense, but can be put in three different aspects: prospective, imperfective and perfective. The perfective aspect is marked by the sufix -s-, which is introduced before the -a ending. Similarly, the prospective aspect is marked by -t-. Thus, ''Miadasofo tia - The train comes/The train arrives Miadasofo til's'a'' - The train has arrived ''Miadasofo til't'a'' - The train is going to arrive (The rules for inserting the letter -l- before the suffix are discussed in the next dection) Verbs can be put inot passive voice by adding the suffix -er. E.g. ''Me sia miadasofou - I see the train Miadasofo siera mede - The train is seen by me. To negate a verb, the prefix s- (se- before "s") is used: Me smilta -- I am not going Me du skia siat -- I can't see you. Rules for adding suffixes and endings When a suffix or and ending is added to a Sallia root that ends with a vowel, special rules may apply. The reason for it is that such roots used to end with the letter -l- that is dropped in modern speech but makes a reappearance in certian situations. Namely, - when the root ends with a vowel, and the suffix starts with a consonant, -l- is added before the suffix - when the root ends with a vowel, and the suffix/ending starts with the same vowel, the second vowel is dropped and replaced by -l. For example: ti ''+ ''a --> tia (no change) pa + a'' --> ''pal (final -a is dropped and replaced by -l) pa + s'' + ''a --> palsa (-l- is introduced after the root) Nouns Sallia nouns can be put in many different cases by adding different endings to the root word. Nominative/Absolutive (with passive verbs) - (zero ending) Accusative -u Ergative ("by", with passive) -de Genitive/Posessive ("of") -o Instrumental/Instructive ("with"/"using", "by") -ul Dative ("to") -ti Benefactive ("for", also indicates purpose) -t Causal ("because of") -s Conditional ("if") -si Comitative ("with") -ule Abessive ("without") -ume Semblative ("like") -se Equative/Essive ("same as") -le Partitive ("of" with amounts) -lo Topical ("about") -ot Allative ("to") -tin Locative ("in") -ni Ablative ("from") -sin Perlative ("through") -enti The four cases that deal with location can also be used to indicate time. To further specify location, nouns can be augmented with the following suffixes: inside -one top -ode front -oso bottom -oder back -osor neighborhood -oke away - oker surface -oten place outside, around -oner These suffixes are placed before the case marker, and are stressed. The following suffixes transform other words into location or time indicators place of -ona, -ana (with verbs) time of -oto, -ato (with verbs) To form the plural, the suffix -i- is added after the root and before the case markers: kolhon - a bird kolhoni - birds kolhonti - to the bird kolhoniti - to the birds and so on. Adverbs Adverbs usually end in -i or have no ending. Typically they follow the verb they modify, but may precede it as well. Gerund A verb, with its -a ending, can be treated as a gerund. In this capacity, it can have a subject, objects and adverbs modifying it, and, at the same time, it can accept case markers and be treated as if it was a noun (nomen actionis). An adjective can be treated in the same way. Here are some examples: Sia ia kensiale - Seeing is believing Me ria de miat mule - I want you to go with me. Dictionary Example text Category:Languages